Opinion

Mercury News editorial: Brown should just end the death penalty

Mercury News Editorial

Posted:
05/01/2011 08:00:00 PM PDT

Updated:
05/02/2011 06:52:48 AM PDT

Gov. Jerry Brown struck a symbolic blow for fiscal sanity last week when he canceled construction of a new $356 million death row at San Quentin Prison. He could do the state an even bigger favor -- saving taxpayers about $1 billion over the next five years -- by commuting the sentences of all 713 prisoners on death row to life in prison.

Fifteen states have abolished the death penalty and are reaping the cost savings without putting their citizens at needless risk. California should join them. The cost of housing a death-row inmate is estimated to cost $90,000 a year more than for prisoners serving life without parole. That is completely wasted money.

Brown's move to cancel the death row construction is a good step. California's schools and law enforcement agencies could put the money to far better use. The total savings from canceling construction and commuting sentences of death row inmates would pay the salaries of thousands of teachers and law enforcement officers.

But unless other changes in the system are made, rejecting this project will only delay spending. Judges have repeatedly found the state in violation of the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment at its prisons, including death row. In proceedings in 2008, it was revealed that "stalactites of slime" were growing in the San Quentin showers, and bird and rodent infestations were horrific. The judge demanded the stwate clean up the unhealthy conditions. That helps explain the death row plan.

Advertisement

It was to house 1,150 inmates and include health care facilities, which could be a good investment. Transporting heavily guarded death row inmates to other medical facilities is tremendously expensive. But California can solve its prison problem more economically by re-examining more broadly how it spends money on corrections. A new strategic plan for prison construction with an eye to reducing prison health care costs is needed. So is sentencing reform.

Stepping up the rate of executions, as some suggest, isn't the answer. It's been proven in other states that innocent people have been put to death; others have been exonerated after years on death row. Short-circuiting appeals would be wrong.

In 2010, California condemned 28 more inmates to die. The state cannot continue to hand out death sentences at this rate. If it really needs cells for 1,150 death row inmates a decade from now, construction costs will be the least of its problems. Remember that $90,000 extra cost per inmate per year.

It's no surprise that a poll released Friday shows voters support commuting death sentences to life without the possibility of parole to save money. The survey of 800 "high propensity" voters showed 63 percent approval. Democrats (64 percent), Republicans (58 percent) and Independents (70 percent) all voiced support.

California rarely finds that kind of consensus on such a contentious issue. The governor and the Legislature should take advantage of it and pull the plug on the death penalty, at least for those currently on death row. It would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars that could instead be spent on preventing crime, catching bad guys -- and keeping kids in school so they don't get lured into criminal behavior.